Jim Lauderdale

Lauderdale's solo debut, Planet of Love, was produced by Rodney Crowell and John Leventhal and released in 1991.[8][14] Lost in the Lonesome Pines, a 2002 collaboration with Ralph Stanley, won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album. The Bluegrass Diaries won the same award in 2008. In 2003, Lauderdale was joined by roots/jam band Donna the Buffalo on the album Wait 'Til Spring. Could We Get Any Closer? was nominated for a Grammy in 2009.

In 2013, Lauderdale released Old Time Angels (a bluegrass album) and his first solo acoustic album, Blue Moon Junction, followed by Black Roses, with the North Mississippi All-Stars.[15] Lauderdale appears on Laura Cantrell's 2013 release No Way There From Here.[16] 2014 saw the release of his album I'm A Song.[17] Lauderdale will release his new album Time Flies on August 3, 2018, along with Jim Lauderdale and Roland White.[18]

In 2007, he began a collaboration with Larry Campbell, the band Olabelle, and others in the American Beauty Project, a loose collection of musicians dedicated to reimagining in performance the Grateful Dead's two classic 1970 albums, Workingman's Dead and American Beauty.

In 2011, Lauderdale toured with Hot Tuna, an ensemble act that included Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, Barry Mitterhof, G.E. Smith, and, for a time, Charlie Musselwhite. He has also toured with Elvis Costello, Rhonda Vincent, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and others.

Lauderdale wrote and produced two bluegrass records with Ralph Stanley. Their first collaboration, I Feel Like Singing Today, was nominated for a Grammy.

Lauderdale released a record called Buddy and Jim with long-time friend and collaborator Buddy Miller in 2013.[11] Lauderdale said they recorded it in three days in Miller's home studio. Miller did the mixing and producing.[17]

Lauderdale has often collaborated with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.[17]

Lauderdale's first collaboration with Hunter was Headed for the Hills and the second was Patchwork River in May 2010. The June 2011 release Reason and Rhyme was their third collaboration. Additionally, they wrote songs for a North Mississippi Allstars record that was released in the fall of 2013.[7]

Two 2013 releases, Black Roses and Blue Moon Junction, were co-written with Hunter. Black Roses features North Mississippi Allstars' Cody and Luther Dickinson, whom Lauderdale met in Nashville at the Americana Music Festival,[19] as well as Muscle Shoals musicians Spooner Oldham and David Hood. The album was recorded at their father Jim Dickinson's studio, Zebra Ranch in Mississippi.[19]

2013's Blue Moon Junction features Lauderdale's work as a singer and songwriter, some of them co-written with Hunter in a solo, acoustic format. Lauderdale produced the record.[19] Lauderdale says that they have more material that might make a good follow-up album, and hopes they will have time to collaborate again soon.[17]

Lauderdale said he worked on a yet to be released record with Nick Lowe's band during a time he spent in England.[17]

On August 3, 2018, Lauderdale released Jim Lauderdale and Roland White, a previously lost record made with mandolin master Roland White. The disc was recorded in Earl Scruggs' basement in 1979, and the songs were only found recently by White's wife.[18]

The term "the Jim Lauderdale Phenomenon", coined by singer-songwriter Kim Richey and cited in an April 2000 article in The Tennessean by writer Peter Cooper, is an ironic reference to the fact that Lauderdale was nominated for a Grammy for his work with Stanley but was released from a record deal with RCA not long after. He was also released from contracts with Warner Bros., Columbia, and Atlantic Records.[20][21] The article notes that many country artists that were signed to major labels in the 1990s failed to get radio airtime and had their contracts dropped after making one or two albums.[20] The problem became endemic in Nashville during this period, when a lot of good music was being created and recorded, but the megastars dominated the airwaves.[22]

• Gary Allan: "Wake Up Screaming", "What's On My Mind", "We Touched the Sun"
• Mark Chesnutt: "Gonna Get a Life" (co-written with Frank Dycus) – hit No. 1 in 1995[2]
• Elvis Costello: "I Lost You", "Poor Borrowed Dress
• The Dixie Chicks: "Hole in My Head" (co-written with Buddy Miller)
• Vince Gill: "Sparkle"
• Patty Loveless: "Halfway Down", "To Feel That Way at All", "You Don't Seem To Miss Me"
• George Strait:
  • "The King of Broken Hearts", "Where the Sidewalk Ends" from Pure Country Soundtrack (1992)
  • "I Wasn't Fooling Around", "Stay Out of My Arms" from Easy Come, Easy Go (1993)
  • "Nobody Has to Get Hurt", "What Am I Waiting For" from Lead On (1994)
  • "Do the Right Thing" from Blue Clear Sky (1996)
  • "We Really Shouldn't Be Doing This" from One Step at a Time (1998)
  • "One of You", "What Do You Say to That" from Always Never the Same (1999)
  • "Don't Make Me Come Over There (and Love You)" from George Strait (2000)
  • "Twang", "I Gotta Get to You" from Twang (2009)
• Lee Ann Womack: "The King of Broken Hearts"
• Blake Shelton: "What's On My Mind"

• A Town South of Bakersfield Vol. II (1988) – "What Am I Waiting For"
• Happy Birthday, Buck! A Texas Salute to Buck Owens (2002) – "Sweet Rosie Jones"
• Touch My Heart: A Tribute to Johnny Paycheck (2005) – "I Want You To Know"
• Born to the Breed: A Tribute to Judy Collins (2008) – "Easy Times"

A documentary film called Jim Lauderdale: The King of Broken Hearts, directed by Jeremy Dylan, was released in 2013. Using interviews with Elvis Costello, Buddy Miller, John Oates, Gary Allan, Tony Brown, and Jerry Douglas, the film describes Lauderdale's successes and failures as a recording artist.[28]